Chris Sununu brushes off Elon Musk’s potential conflicts of interest, warns a ‘car crash of financial crises coming’
Outgoing New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) brushed aside Elon Musk’s potential conflicts of interest while praising the tech baron’s crusade to get Washington’s fiscal house back in order.
Sununu downplayed fears that Musk’s lucrative government contracts could influence his policy advice to the incoming Trump administration and suggested that the world’s richest man is too wealthy to care about getting more money.
“Everyone has a conflict of interest at some level,” Sununu told CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday when pressed about the billionaire’s financial interests.
Moderator Dana Bash pushed back saying, “But that’s like a pretty big one.”
“True, the guy’s worth $450 billion as of today and this month,” Sununu admitted. “I don’t think he’s doing it for the money.”
“He’s doing it for the bigger project and the bigger vision of America. He doesn’t need the dollars. He really doesn’t,” Sununu added. “He’s so rich, he’s so removed from the potential financial influence of it.”
Sununu portrayed himself as a kindred spirit of sorts with Musk. Both men have a background in engineering, which the Granite State Republican studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Additionally, both men have espoused more traditional fiscal conservative views when it comes to government spending.
Sununu was also optimistic that Musk would be able to trim down government bloat via the nascent Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which despite its name, is not actually a government department.
“This is a car crash, if you will, of financial crises coming,” Sununu cautioned. “[Interest on the debt] goes to about $1.8 trillion in 10 years because our rates are so high now.”
“My big argument here is states have already found all these efficiencies that Washington’s talking about. We have already done it.”
The New Hampshire governor, who toyed with a 2024 run himself, endorsed former presidential hopeful Nikki Haley and was outspokenly critical of Trump during the primary process.
Besides Trump’s temperament, one of Sununu’s biggest gripes was government spending under the real estate mogul’s first term. But this time around, Sununu is optimistic that things will be different.
“I’m cautiously optimistic for a couple of reasons. Number one, I don’t think [Trump] understood how Congress really fundamentally worked in 2017 and 2018,” Sununu explained.
“Republicans lost in 2018 because they talked a big game and got nothing done. I think there’s a different team he’s surrounded himself with, a little more professional of a team within the White House itself,” he added. “And he has outsiders.”
In Congress, Republicans are set to have a slimmer House majority than they had during the start of Trump’s first term in 2017. Fiscal hawks within the party have indicated a willingness to flex their muscles during key budget fights.
Earlier this month, for example, Musk helped fuel a revolt against a bipartisan government funding bill that House Republican leadership negotiated with Democrats.
Sununu, who bucked pressure to run for the US Senate in 2022, opted against seeking reelection for a fourth consecutive term as governor. He did not face term limits.
He now plans on heading to the private sector when Gov.-elect Kelly Ayotte (R) moves into the governor’s mansion.
